The psychological sense of economic hardship: Measurement models, validity, and cross-ethnic equivalence for urban families

Manuel Barrera, Heather Caples, Jenn-Yun Tein

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

103 Scopus citations

Abstract

Poverty is a community stressor that disproportionally affects ethnic minority families. One aspect of programmatic research on poverty focuses on the psychological sense of economic hardship. In a study of 319 African American, European American, and Mexican American urban families, parents completed objective measures of economic status and scales of perceived economic hardship that were adapted from previous research. Measurement models identified a coherent construct of psychological sense of economic hardship that was essentially equivalent for mothers and fathers, English- and Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans, and the 3 ethnic groups. In support of the validity of this construct, relations between objective indicators of economic status and perceived economic hardship showed equivalence across these same groups.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)493-517
Number of pages25
JournalAmerican journal of community psychology
Volume29
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2001

Keywords

  • Assessment
  • Economic hardship
  • Ethnic minorities

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Applied Psychology
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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